After a blogger posted about allegations of sexual misconduct taking place within Concordia University’s creative writing program, the university has spoken publicly.
Concordia University’s president, Alan Shepard, denied having heard of these allegations before the blog post on Monday.
“I’ve been reading it’s an open secret, but it was not an open secret to me,” Shepard said. “I wasn’t aware. If I had been aware, I would’ve acted sooner.”
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The university has launched an investigation into the matter.
One prominent and former Concordia student, Heather O’Neill, finds it difficult to believe that the university president didn’t know.
“He says he never heard any inkling which is very bizarre and hard to believe that he could be so clueless,” O’Neill, a novelist, said. “He’s been there since 2012, and in 2014, a writer named Emma Healey wrote an essay for the Hairpin in the United States about her experience at Concordia.”
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Concordia says “a university-wide assessment” will be done on their “current environment.”